The Big 12 will provide updates including news, stories and
behind-the-scenes coverage from the 2008 Big 12 Football Media Days
starting on Monday, July 21 through Wednesday, July 23. Check back here
to catch up on the latest action from Kansas City, site this year's Dr
Pepper Big 12 Football Championship.Sunday, July 20, 2008Unofficial kickoff

The 2008 season is over a month away, but the talking about the
season starts Monday with The Big 12 Conference Football Media Days in
Kansas City.

Four teams will have the spotlight over each of the next three
days. Each team's head coach plus three to four top players will be
grilled by members of the print and electronic media. A record turnout
of reporters is expected.

Media days rarely produce headlines. At times, though, the gab fests can produce some interesting story angles.

Two stories are sure to be explored Monday.

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach decided to leave senior quarterback
Graham Harrell and sophomore wide receiver Michael Crabtree in Lubbock.
Those two are the nationally known names on the Red Raiders' roster.
Why not give them added exposure at Big 12 media days.

Leach will no doubt expound on his reasoning Monday. However,
Leach told Bruce Feldman of ESPN.com that he decided Harrell and
Crabtree would get enough "pub" all season and that for the good of
team morale he chose to bring four other players to K.C.

First-year A&M coach Mike Sherman also is likely to be
quizzed on the absence of senior quarterback Stephen McGee. Did McGee
stay in College Station because his status as the Aggies' starter is
shaky? Check back Monday for more details.

_ Wendell Barnhouse

Crystal ball, part one

Say what you will about my colleagues in the media business, but
they are paid to know what they're doing. For instance, four out of the
last six seasons, the pre-season media voting correctly tabbed the
winners in the Big 12's North and South divisions.

The 2008 pre-season prognostications have Missouri winning the
North and Oklahoma winning the South. If the media choices are correct
for the fifth time in seven years, the Big 12 championship game in
Kansas City for the first time will have a rematch of the previous
year's title game.

Also, a composite polling of 10 pre-season preview magazines
and national web sites shows that Missouri and Oklahoma are the
unanimous favorites to win their divisions.

_ Wendell Barnhouse

Crystal ball, part two

Austin Murphy, one of Sports Illustrated's college football writers,
went limb walking and made a number of predictions that appeared on
SI.com.

Murphy predicts that Texas Tech will reach the Bowl
Championship Series title game but will lose to Ohio State. Can't say
which forecast is more bold _ the Red Raiders playing for the national
championship or Ohio State winning (instead of flopping) in The Big
Game.

Murphy's crystal ball also says that Missouri will be
undefeated going into its Oct. 18 game at Texas ... and that the Tigers
will still be undefeated come Oct. 19.

_ Wendell Barnhouse

Their hometown

Youngstown, Ohio doesn't exactly qualify as Big 12 country. But
there are a number of folks there who have an affinity for Big 12
coaches who attended Youngstown's Cardinal Mooney High School.

Ron Stoops, the eldest Stoops' brother, coordinated a fund
raiser this summer to raise money for scholarships at their former high
school.

"Cardinal Mooney means a lot to me," Bo Pelini told Tom
Dienhart of Rivals.com. "There is a brotherhood among us. It's
important to us, and I think it's important to Youngstown."

_ Wendell Barnhouse

Dynasty talk

Dennis Dodd, the national college football writer for CBS
Sports.com, recently wrote about USC as the sport's current dynasty. He
listed seven other schools that have produced dynasties and two Big 12
teams made the list: Nebraska (1970-1999) and Oklahoma (1948-1958,
1971-1985).

_ Wendell Barnhouse

Friday, July 18, 2008Teagarden's week to remember

A nice week for former Texas baseball standout Taylor Teagarden.

Sunday he played in the Futures Game in New York as part of
All-Star weekend. On Wednesday, he was named to the 2008 United States
Olympic Baseball Team. On Friday, he was called up by the Texas Rangers
and made his major-league debut.

Teagarden went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.

Teagarden's stay in The Bigs could be a short one. He was an
emergency call up because Rangers catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia will be
out for a few days with a stomach virus.

The Olympic team roster must be finalized by Tuesday. It is
expected that Teagarden will be back in the minors by then and will
thus be eligible to make the trip to Beijing.

_ Wendell Barnhouse

Friday, July 18, 2008Texas to retire nine jersey numbers

Texas formerly had a policy that it wouldn't retire a player's
number unless he had been a national player of the year. That had
limited the Longhorns to retiring the numbers of just four players _
Heisman Trophy winners Earl Campbell (20) and Ricky Williams (34),
Wooden Award winner T.J. Ford (11) and Roger Clemens (21).

The school has changed its policies and announced Fridya that
during the 2008-09 season it would honor nine players will have their
jersey numbers retired.

Missouri fans nicknamed former defensive end and sack master Justin
Smith "Godzilla." Brian Coulter, a former Florida State signee who is
now on the Tigers' roster, says he's fine with it if Mizzou fans refer
to him as "Godzilla II." And Coulter is also confident that by season's
end he'll join the seven Tigers who were selected to the Big 12's
pre-season all-conference team. Read the rest of Mike DeArmond's story in the Kansas City Star.

_ Wendell Barnhouse

Friday, July 18, 2008Pre-season All-Americans

A total of 22 Big 12 Conference players have been selected pre-season All-Americans according to five preview publications.

Pre-seasaon magazines Phil Steele, Blue Ribbon, The Sporting
News, Athlon and Lindy's were used to compile the pre-season list.
Steele selects a first through fourth team; The Sporting News and
Athlon select first through third; Lindy's selects first and second;
Blue Ribbon selects only a first team.

DT George Hypolite (2nd team Sporting News; 3rd team Athlon; 2nd team Lindy's).

Kansas State

PR Deon Murphy (1st team Phil Steele)

Nebraska

WR Marlon Lucky (3rd team Phil Steele)

_ Wendell Barnhouse

Friday, July 18, 2008Quarterbacks galore

Much of the off-season and pre-season buzz regarding the Big 12 has
been generating by quarterbacks. When 10 of 12 starters are returning,
when one of those was a Heisman finalist, another led the nation in
passing efficiency and another is setting records faster than he
blinks, it's understandable the buzz is louder than a Metallica
concert.

The Year Of The QB was supported when the pre-season watch list
for the Davey O'Brien National Quarteback Award was released this week.
There were 31 on the list and five were from Big 12 schools _
Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, Missouri's Chase Daniel, Texas Tech's Graham
Herrell, Texas' Colt McCoy and Kansas' Todd Reesing.

No conference had more than the Big 12's five. The Big East,
Atlantic Coast and Pacific-10 conferences each had four on the watch
list.